Race Against Time
by CharmedMoon84
Summary: When her boyfriend begins showing signs of being poisoned after a brief encounter with two of her enemies, Kim races to find a cure for him before it's too late.
1. Chapter 1

The slender woman currently clad in a green and black outfit strode into the large room, a slight frown marring her facial features as she approached the figure standing in front of a black board, his back to her.

"Whatever you called me in here for had better be important," she said.

The figure turned to face her.

"Of course it is," he told her.

"So, spill already."

He frowned at her impatience.

"Fine. For years now, I've tried to rid myself of that troublesome red headed teen, without success. And it was all due to her companion."

"Yeah. Duh."

"So, I thought the best way to break her spirit was to get rid of her companion for good."

The slender woman just stared at her boss for a few seconds.

"Get rid of him how, exactly?"

"By using this," he replied as he held out a stoppered vial filled with a clear liquid.

"Uh, what is that?"

"Poison that I collected from a few vemonous snakes."

"Poison? That's your plan to get rid of the boyfriend?"

He nodded.

"By injecting him with this vial's contents, I can ensure that he'll die a slow and painful death."

"But don't most poisons have an antidote?"

"Usually, yes. But not for my mixture."

It gradually dawned on the ebony haired woman that her employer had no intention of allowing his foe's boyfriend to survive his poisoning or allowing his foe to find an antidote for the poison.

"That might be the first successful idea you've had over the years."

"This time, I will crush her spirit by causing her boyfriend's death."

A sudden thought occured to her.

"Just how do you plan on getting a hold of the idiot in order to inject him with your poison mixture?"

"That's where you come in, my dear."

She blinked.

"Me? What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to create some sort of disturbstance that'll separate them if they're already out in the open and I'll inject the idiot with my deadly mixture while his girlfriend's occupied."

"I like your plan so far. Let's go."

The two left the room and headed out to accomplish the plot.


	2. Chapter 2

Unaware that her boyfriend would soon be fighting for his life, Kim was walking down the sidewalk with him, her arm linked through his. They had decided to just spend some time wandering around town, not having much to do on a weekend. Their heads turned towards each other and were about to kiss, when the sound of an explosion from a building halfway down the sidewalk gave them pause, before spotting an all too familiar and slender form emerge from the smoke and ran down the sidewalk, away from the teenage couple. Kim left her boyfriend's side to give chase and he had just taken a step forward to follow, only to feel a slight prick of pain near the side of his neck. He glanced over his shoulder, only to see the older man behind him, holding a syringe in one hand and a clear vial of something in the other hand and widely grinning.

"Let's see how your girlfriend deals with losing you," he said.

The blonde young man wondered what he meant before he felt a sudden wave of weakness crash over his body and he also felt the injection site slowly becoming painful.

"What did you do to me?" he questioned.

"Oh, just injected you with the combined vemon of five different snakes. There's nothing your girlfriend can do to prevent your death."

Unable to remain standing, the blonde youth collapsed to the sidewalk. Kim suddenly sensed that something was wrong with her boyfriend, so she spun around, only to see him lying on the sidewalk on his back and rushed to his side. She fell to her knees beside him and gathered him into her arms before her gaze drifted to the man who stood above them.

"What did you do to him?"

"I gave him a fairly large dose of a mixture I put together using the vemon of five of the world's most dangerous snakes."

"You've poisoned my boyfriend?"

He nodded.

"Why?"

"Because you've been a thorn in my side for several years. Oh, I almost forgot. The poison mixture I injected your boyfriend with has no antidote, so you'd best prepare to say your good-byes to him, because his time's running out."

The threesome were joined by the slender ebony haired woman and both she and her employer turned away from the two teens before they walked away.


	3. Chapter 3

Left alone with her rapidly dying boyfriend, Kim knew he needed a hospital, but her mom's hospital was three blocks away and her boyfriend wasn't in the best condition to walk the three blocks to the hospital. So, she whipped out her cell phone and dialed her mom's number, praying her mom wasn't currently involved in a surgery. But after a few seconds, her mom's voice answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Mom, I need you to get me and my boyfriend to the hospital, now."

"Whoa, honey. Slow down and tell me what happened and where you two are."

"We're three blocks from the hospital and my foe injected my boyfriend with a mixture of snake vemon that he'd gleaned from five different snakes. Please hurry, mom," she pleaded before she ended the call.

After hanging up, she met her boyfriend's gaze, only to notice his breathing was slowly changing.

"Stay with me! Mom's on her way. Don't you leave me. Not now and not like this."

His focus struggled to stay on her, but he was having a hard time doing so. He just wanted to give into his feelings of weariness and escape the pain coursing through his body. But his inner strength and love for his girlfriend refused to let him do so.

'_It's not your time to die yet. You've just started building a relationship with this young woman. Don't leave her like this,' _ his inner voice told him.

Line break

After a five minute wait, Kim's mom drove up and got out before sheand her daughter gingerly helped the dying young man into the car and drove the three blocks back to the hospital.


	4. Chapter 4

Once at the hospital, both Kim and her mom helped him into the hospital before she was left alone in the main waiting room as her mom guided him into an exam room. During her mom's exam, she paced back and forth with a single thought on her mind.

_'If the vemon kills him, I'll make his murderer pay dearly for causing his death.' _

Her constant pacing was cut short by her mom joining her.

"How is he, mom?" she asked.

Her mom took a deep breath before breaking the news to her daughter.

"Honey," she began, only to be cut off by her daughter.

"Don't say it, mom. Please."

"Let me talk, honey. I was able to identify the five types of snakes whose vemon got injected into his body and one of the vemons was gleaned from one of the world's most deadly snakes. There's nothing more I can do for him."

"Please... save him, mom. I beg you."

"I'll give it my best shot, but I can't make any promises, honey."

"What about anti venom?"

"That might work."

"Can I see him, mom?"

"Sure. Follow me."

Mother and daughter entered the exam room and she gasped at seeing his condition. She slowly approached his hospital bed and gently took one of his hands in hers.

"Come on, honey. Stay with me. Don't leave me," she whispered softly.

But the form in the bed didn't answer. The steady beep of the heart monitor assured her that he was weakly clinging to life, but even she wasn't sure if he'd pull through or not.

Line break

The mists swirled around him as he found himself silently wondering where he was. The mists in front of him parted and he found that he was no longer alone. The elderly man stood a few feet away from him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, confusion lightly creeping into his voice.

"I'm here to remind you that the powers you took into yourself just a few short years ago are keeping your soul from crossing into the light."

"I don't understand."

"It's true that your body's dying from the snake vemon, but both your powers and will to live are doing their part to keep your soul tethered to your body."

"But what about Kim?"

"She wants you to live."

"But what if I'm unable to go back to my body?"

"Then, your only choice would be to go into that light."

"That would devastate Kim."

"You can choose to go back, but your body's in a fast decline and your soul would bypass the holding place for those whose bodies haven't yet died."

"But you just said my powers are keeping my body from dying."


	5. Chapter 5

Kim sat in the chair beside her boyfriend's hospital bed, holding his hand in hers. It had been an hour since he'd been injected with the snake venom mixture and still he clung to life. The hospital room door behind Kim opened and her mom entered.

"Kim, honey, it's been an hour since he was admitted and there's been no change in his condition."

"I'm not losing him, mom," Kim replied without turning around.

"Honey, be reasonable. There's a slim chance he'll wake up and an even bigger chance that he won't."

"You adminstered as much anti venom as you had available to him. Please give him a chance."

"Even with that, he still might not wake up," her mom said, only to see the figure in the bed slowly opening his eyes and meeting his girlfriend's gaze.

"Hey," he said in a soft voice.

"You had me so worried about you," she scolded him.

"I'm sorry for scaring you," he replied.

Kim's mom knew her daughter's suggestion to use anti venom is what had saved his life. She approached the couple.

"You're a very lucky young man here. If Kim hadn't suggested adminstering anti venom to you, there's a very high chance you might not have made it," she told him.


End file.
